The Books I Read In October

Fiction
'Random' by Craig Robertson
This is a crime novel written from the perspective of a serial killer.  It is set in Glasgow, but unlike the Malcolm Mackay trilogy I read earlier this year, you really get a feel for different parts of the city and the people living in them.  Obviously it is difficult to elicit sympathy for a serial killer.  Robertson manages to pull it off, in part through revealing as the book continues what motivates the apparent random killings and by having many of the victims being people that many would see as needing punishment anyway.  I would not say I enjoyed the book and some of the deaths, let alone the torture that a local crime boss carries out to try to find the killer, are hard.  However, I guess I admired the book more than I expected.  There are certainly well written moments of tension both for the killer in escaping justice and for different individuals that come within his purview as he uses various devices to ensure they are selected at random.  It is certainly a lot better written than the Mackay series which surprisingly received so much acclaim.

'A Storm of Swords 1: Steel and Snow' by George R.R, Martin
This is the third book in the series and is broken into two.  This means this particular volume comes in at over 600 pages, but is a third shorter than the preceding one.  As I have already noted with the Song of Ice and Fire series, it is as if it is a single very long story or in fact parallel stories.  Thus, after the first book, each volume is a slice from the very long narrative.  It is not bad, but it does mean that there is no resolution.  Many of these characters in this book are still on journeys they started in the previous book and in other ways this is the aftermath of the battles seen about two-thirds through 'A Clash of Kings' though Martin makes it clear at the start of this third book that readers should understand that the different parallel stories are not in chronological sequence, so in fact there is some overlap in narrative with the previous book.  Many of the narrative lines are largely independent of the others, even when you have the narratives for Tyrion Lannister and Ser (later Lord) Davos Seaworth who fought on opposing sides in the Battle of Blackwater in the previous book.

Though there is hardship for all of the characters some of the misery quotient has been dialled back in this book which makes it easier to swallow.  This is one aspect in which the book differs from the television series made of it, 'A Game of Thrones'.  In contrast, however, characters end up more mutilated than in the series; many began much uglier in the first place.  To his different coloured eyes and misshapen head, Tyrion now has lost much of his nose.  Davos has had parts of his fingers cut off before the story begins.  Jamie Lannister has his right hand cut off as in the television series, but being able to see inside the characters' heads, a strength of the book, we know how much longer the pain goes on for him and how the loss of his sword hand makes him feel emasculated in a way which is not conveyed on television.

One significant difference in the book compared to the series is the marginalisation in the novel of Caitlin Stark, the matriarch of the Stark family; a widow from the end of the first book believing that two or three of her children have been killed and supporting the bid of her eldest son, Robb for the throne.  On television Caitlin travels with her son's army and offers him council.  In the book she spends her time at the castle of her dying father only hearing about events at a distance.  The one big decision she makes, to try to trade Jamie Lannister for her eldest daughter, Sansa Stark, held by the Lannisters at court, is heavily criticised.  On television, Caitlin is heavily involved in the difficulties caused by Robb's love for Jeyne.  Their marriage leads to a crisis with the Frey clan which controls the strategic crossing from the North to the South of the continent of Westeros.  In the book, there is no such discussion.  Robb simply turns up back at his grandfather's house, a married man.  There are none of the qualms and discussions seen in the programme and this weakens the story and especially the point of having Caitlin in it.

A further point which I touched on when reviewing the first book is how young many of the leading characters are when they have sex.  Robb Stark is 16 when he marries as is his wife.  His sister, Sansa Stark is 13 when she is married to Tyrion Lannister.  Daenerys Tagaryen was 14 when she was married and had a miscarriage; she is not much older in this book when she reveals herself as bisexual.  Only Sansa does not have sex and that is in part as some kind of way to show that Tyrion is amoral rather than purely immoral.  Saying that, he still makes regular use of prostitutes.  I have long defended George R.R. Martin from criticism which, ironically, is often strongest from his most loyal fans.  However, the more I read his stand-out series the more I am coming to see that he is largely a dirty old man, filling his books with inappropriate fantasies.  Yes, compared to many fantasy authors, he writes well.  Yes, he wants to reflect behaviour which is of the kind seen in our Middle Ages.  However, there is too much of it and too much detail to make for comfortable reading.  The television series does minor adjustment to apparent ages and works better for it.  I guess I am going to continue with the books, but I do think they should have some 'trigger warnings' to indicate that the stories will be distasteful for some and that teenagers should not take them as any suggestion of what they should be attempting to do.

'Cuba Libre' by Elmore Leonard
I know Leonard's reputation and have come to resent, even oppose, his precepts for writing.  He favours a style which is incredibly pared down and which, in my view, does not aid clarity.  I looked for it in reading this book, but found he breaks many of his own rules.  The book is set in Cuba in the months leading up to and during the Spanish-American War of 1898, though the concluding part of that war is gone over very briskly.  It is focused on a handful of Americans, including the mistress of an American sugar plantation owner, a horse dealer, a journalist and a marine who survived the destruction of the USS Maine in Havana's harbour.  The first part of the book is very messy as we are introduced to these various characters and the Cubans on both sides of the conflict trying to liberate Cuba from Spanish control.  There are a lot of nasty people in the book, both from the revolutionary and the authorities' side.  Too often they behave in a way which seems irrational for the people of the time and place even with the prevalent level of violence.

The book improves in the last third around various parties trying to secure ransom for the release of the plantation owner's mistress, against the backdrop of US intervention on the island.  There are some excellent points of tension and I guess this is because Leonard, despite the exotic setting, is back on his home ground, dealing with double-dealing.  Even then, there are some jarring sections like two Americans simply sending a semaphore message with roughly constructed flags which leads to them being picked up off a beach by the US Navy despite it being in the middle of shelling Cuban installations.

Though the book improves towards the end, you have to have the patience to get through the very scrappy, disjointed earlier sections to reach it.  Yes, the setting is interesting and the landscape and what went on it is well portrayed.  However, Leonard has all these different parts that he seems unable to reconcile.  The political background sits very uncomfortably with the main story and either needed to be more distant or brought fully into the narrative.  I guess it was good that Leonard tried a different context for this novel, but it really only works when it comes closest to his more typical setting of crime in 20th century US cities.